updated 12:00 pm EDT, Thu October 6, 2011

HP starts internal investigation on Android

An e-mail from HP's Philip Robb from the Open Source Program Office shared online reveals HP is investigating the alleged sale of TouchPads preloaded with Android rather than HP's own webOS software. Robb added HP never authorized the distribution of any version of Android on the tablet. He further said that the manufacturing process couldn't have resulted in Android being preloaded on the TouchPad, and that a third party reportedly stepped in without permission.

This is different and more serious for HP than the happening of the hacking community out there that's loading Android on their own, personal webOS tablets after they've purchased them.

Robb also declined to grant source code as HP never authorized Android on the TouchPad and thus wasn't following the open-source side of the license.

Finally, Robb said HP supports efforts to put Android onto personal TouchPads but isn't formally part of the community working on the project.